Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio. Published September 12, 2024 3:11 P.M.
(Beaver, Pa) The Beaver County Commissioners were met with concerns and questions regarding the consideration of buying the former Beaver County Times building in Beaver at their Thursday morning work session. County Controller Maria Longo and Treasurer Sandie Egley were two notable officials that voiced their concerns on the subject. Both want to see a comprehensive analysis performed for the project. Longo has stated that there is a conflict of interest in the deal and with the assessment appeals.
Discussions have been in place between the Commissioners and building owner Joe Askar to purchase the building for document storage among other things. Beaver County Radio has been told that Michael Coleman possibly has something to do with the ownership of the building as well. According to documents provided to Beaver County Radio, Askar paid $675,000 for the building in May 2023. Under the new assessment, the building was valued at $3 million. The estimated cost, if the county pursued the purchase of the building, would be $2.8 million.
Kohlman, who is alleged to also have a part in the ownership of the building, is the former Chief Assessor for Beaver County who worked as a consultant with Tyler Technologies for the initial assessment, and helped to set property values. Following his retirement, he was replaced by current Chief Assessor Josh Eckelberger. The county rehired Kohlman, along with his assistant Joann Ferrazzano, and his company, Commonwealth Real Estate Services LLC, to perform third-party appraisals for the county on properties in which owners filed appeals, even though individuals involved were involved in the initial assessment. Eckelberger also works for Kohlman’s company in addition to his role with the county. Commonwealth Real Estate Services has been contracted by the county from November 30th, 2023 through December 31, 2024 at a rate of $2,400 dollars per residential property appraisal and $6,700 per property for commercial. Kohlman is estimated to make up to $1 million dollars on the appraisals alone.
During the meeting, Beaver County Radio asked the Commissioners what the purpose of the Times building would serve for the County. Chairman Dan Camp relayed that the county needs a new place to keep hard documents. Currently they are stored in the mushroom mine storage facilities in Wampum. Camp says this has become costly, paying around $200,000 dollars a year for the storage in addition to extra fees whenever documents need to be retrieved. He said the building could also safely store ESU and election equipment.
The county has contracted another third party appraiser, Nicklas King McConahy, to appraise the Times building under the recommendation of the Assessment Department including Eckelberger, where Kohlman and Askar have also been working. It is also unclear at this time how many repairs or renovations the building would require, or what the cost would be.
Controller Longo is asking for due diligence and a fair process for taxpayers from the Commissioners. The former Times Building, located at 400 Fair Avenue in Bridgewater was the home of the newspaper from the early 1940s through 2019.